Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry wherein floor space can be at a premium, such that newer and increasingly sophisticated games and machines are preferred over older and less sophisticated ones. As a general example, the casino and gaming industries have experienced a marked shift over the past few decades from the use of fully mechanical gaming machines to electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines. In a typical gaming machine, such as a video poker or slot machine, a game play is first initiated through a player wager of money or credit, whereupon the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type, including a monetary award, depending on the game outcome. Although this process is generally true for both mechanical and electronic gaming machines, the electronic machines tend to be more popular with players and thus more lucrative for casinos for a number of reasons, such as increased game varieties, more attractive and dynamic video and audio presentations, and the ability to award larger jackpots.
Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines typically include a number of hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities, with such hardware and software components being generally well known in the art. A typical electronic gaming machine comprises a central processing unit (CPU) or master gaming controller (MGC), which is usually located in a main cabinet of the gaming machine, and which typically controls various combinations of hardware and software components, devices and peripherals that encourage game play, allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and control payouts and other awards. Software components can include, for example, boot and initialization routines, various game play programs and subroutines, credit and payout routines, image and audio generation programs, various component modules and a random number generator, among others.
Exemplary hardware devices can include various inputs that accept money and/or credits into the gaming machine, such as bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers and ticket acceptors, as well as user inputs to determine a wager amount and initiate game play, such as keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens and the like. Other common hardware devices include payout components such as coin hoppers and ticket printers, as well as player tracking units. In addition, any given gaming machine will typically have any number of audio and video display components that can include, for example, various speakers, visual display panels, belly and top glasses, exterior cabinet artwork, lights, top box dioramas, and cathode ray tubes, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), flat panels and/or other similar video displays for displaying game play and other assorted information. Many of these peripheral components and devices are built into a main cabinet of the gaming machine itself or into items closely associated with the gaming machine, such as a top box, which usually sits atop the main cabinet.
In recent years, the functionality of electronic gaming machines has become increasingly complex, with many new and improved game play, software, hardware and peripheral devices continually being brought to market by a variety of different manufacturers. Accordingly, there are several reasons that a casino operator or gaming proprietor might have for wanting to upgrade or otherwise alter one or more existing gaming machines after such machines have already been deployed. Such reasons can include a desire to change the existing theme on the gaming machine, and/or a desire to add one or more new capabilities afforded by, for example, new or upgraded gaming software and/or new or upgraded peripheral devices, such as bill and coin acceptors, ticket acceptors and dispensers, downloadable game components, and player tracking units, among others, which can be from the same or various different manufacturers. While many of the newest and upgraded gaming machine components and peripherals can be highly desirable, implementation or changeover in existing and deployed gaming machines can be impossible or impractical in many cases.
Traditionally, electronic gaming machines have not been manufactured as devices that are readily adapted to have a large number of interchanged components or peripheral devices once such gaming machines have been deployed. To operate a given component or peripheral device, it has been common industry practice to provide a gaming machine MGC with parameters, operational characteristics and configuration information specific to that component or peripheral device. This information is incorporated into software and stored in some type of memory device on the MGC, and device specific software operates the functions of the device. For example, to operate a set of lights, the software for the MGC would require information such as the number and types of lights, functions of the lights, signals that correspond to each function, and the response time of the lights. Hence, the addition of any component or peripheral device on a deployed gaming machine would require that a sufficiently sophisticated MGC already be in place, or that the existing MGC be replaced or reprogrammed. Such provisions are not inexpensive or trivial within such a highly regulated industry.
Furthermore, while upgrading or adding a single new component or peripheral device to a deployed gaming machine might involve some MGC and/or other implementation issues, several upgrades or additions within one gaming machine can significantly change the combinations of components and peripheral devices and the resulting relationships within that machine. This can cause many problems on a number of levels. Such problems can multiply when these changes involve the introduction of components and peripherals that are manufactured by a number of different entities, especially where different functions and communication protocols are employed. With the growing number of gaming machine components and peripheral devices, as well as the growing number of manufacturers making such products, device compatibility has been a major industry concern in recent years.
Although there has been some desire within the gaming machine industry to model device compatibility after techniques that have been successfully implemented within the personal computer (PC) industry, there are many reasons as to why similar techniques are not possible or practical in the manufacture of gaming machines and related components. Such reasons can include, for example, various strict regulatory requirements that are placed upon gaming machines; the harsh environment in which gaming machines operate; the more stringent security requirements required of gaming machines; and the stricter fault tolerance requirements required of gaming machine systems, among others. Furthermore, techniques and methods for solving a problem in the PC industry, such as device compatibility and connectivity issues, might not be adequate in the gaming environment. Many faults tolerated in a PC, such as security holes or frequent crashes, may not be tolerated in a gaming machine, since such faults can lead to a loss of funds as a result of stolen cash, fraudulently procured jackpots, or loss of revenue when the gaming machine is inoperable and thus unavailable for play.
Other relevant and significant differences between gaming machine systems and common PC based systems also exist, including the fact that gaming machines must typically be state-based systems, which affects many of the software and hardware designs on the gaming machine. In a state-based system, the system stores and maintains its current state in a non-volatile memory, such that the gaming machine will return to its current state when power is restored in the event of a power failure or other similar malfunction. For instance, if a player were shown an award for a game of chance, but the power failed before the award could be provided to the player, the gaming machine would return to the state where the award is indicated upon the restoration of power. PCs are not state machines, however, as a majority of current data is usually lost whenever a power failure or similar malfunction occurs. Another important difference between gaming machine systems and PC based systems is that the software used to generate a game of chance on and operate the gaming machine must, for regulation purposes, be designed as static and monolithic to prevent cheating by the operator of gaming machine. To gain approval in most gaming jurisdictions, a gaming machine must demonstrate sufficient safeguards that prevent an operator of the gaming machine from manipulating hardware and software in a manner that gives the operator an unfair or illegal advantage. The code validation requirements in the gaming industry affect both hardware and software designs on gaming machines.
As yet another important difference between systems, various peripherals such as coin dispensers, bill validators and ticket printers and computing devices that are used to govern the input and output of cash to a gaming machine have security requirements that are not typically addressed in PCs. Therefore, many PC techniques and methods developed to facilitate device connectivity and device compatibility do not address the emphasis placed on security in the gaming industry. Another difference with respect to gaming machine systems is that all software must be thoroughly tested, verified, and submitted for regulatory approval before it can be placed on a gaming machine. In addition, all such software must also then be tested in the field after placement on the gaming machine. The costs associated with developing and deploying a new device on a gaming machine can thus be quite high, especially where the operating characteristics of that new device are modified such that a new device driver is required. Given these and other differences between gaming machine systems and PC systems, it is readily apparent why many solutions to problems involving device compatibility and interchangeability in PC systems may not be transferable to solve similar problems in gaming machine systems.
With the substantial issues involved in creating interchangeable components and peripheral devices for gaming machines, it is little wonder then that major gaming machine components, such as top boxes and main cabinets, have remained heavily customized and proprietary in nature over the years. Traditionally, major components for gaming machines are all custom designed and manufactured for only one specific line of gaming machines. For instance, a top box for an “Elvis” gaming machine by a given gaming machine manufacturer will only connect with and fit atop an “Elvis” gaming machine by that manufacturer, while a top box for a “Star Wars” gaming machine by a given manufacturer will similarly only connect with and fit atop a “Star Wars” gaming machine by that manufacturer. Thus, while an “Elvis” top box might be interchangeable with respect to any “Elvis” gaming machine that was made by the same manufacturer, such a top box could not be used with any other gaming machine.
In fact, top boxes can become so customized that a top box for one specific line or series of gaming machines by a given manufacturer may not even fit with other gaming machines in the same specific line or series by that same manufacturer. One example of such an occurrence is the “Wheel of Fortune” series of gaming machines designed and manufactured by IGT of Reno, Nev., which series includes at least seven different revisions of gaming machines, with the top boxes from some revisions in the series being inoperable on the gaming machines of other revisions in the series. Even where a top box is designed for a particular existing gaming machine, replacing the top box on that existing machine with the new top box can be a costly and time consuming process involving the decoupling, reconnection and testing of dozens of individual connections. Such a process is fairly uncommon, and many gaming machines are manufactured with a view that replacement of the top box for a given gaming machine will typically not occur even once within the lifetime of that gaming machine. In fact, most gaming machines are viewed and treated as monolithic machines that are retained or scrapped in their entirety when a new game or theme is desired on a machine by a gaming operator.
Similar use of other major components, such as main cabinets, renders the design and manufacture of many gaming machines as a generally proprietary and customized art, whereby major components for most machines are not interchangeable beyond the line of machines for which they were specifically designed. In fact, it is very common for the same top box, main cabinet and other major components of a gaming machine to be manufactured together as one complete unit, and then sold, distributed, deployed, used and eventually rendered obsolete and scrapped as that same original complete unit. Such traditional and pervasive customized design and use of top boxes and main cabinets for gaming machines has resulted in a common mindset among virtually all major gaming machine manufacturers that a new main cabinet and a new top box must be designed for any newly designed line of gaming machines. Not only are these and other major components typically designed from scratch for any new line of gaming machines, but customized connections between these components must then also be custom designed, as the various electrical, processing and communications demands for top boxes and other major components can vary widely depending upon the game design and level of sophistication within such components. Expenses for such practices are exacerbated by recent industry trends toward shorter game life cycles and the general industry practice to change over by scrapping entire machines.
Besides the inherent inconveniences in a lack of interchangeability with other gaming machines, other disadvantages arise from this lack of standardization. One disadvantage is that the variations in top boxes adds to the complexity of design and practicality of use for some gaming machines, as different software and hardware demands, various communication protocols, and varied shapes and sizes for each top box affect how a given machine can be used or implemented on a casino floor. A more significant disadvantage is that virtually every new gaming machine design must also be accompanied by a new customized top box design, at an added cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because there are really no industry protocols or standardizations for major gaming machine components such as top boxes or main cabinets, items such as grids, harnesses, couplings, other physical connectors and communication protocols are custom designed and made for each new line of gaming machines. The design and manufacture of dozens or hundreds of customized top boxes is thus inefficient in the amount of costs, time and human resources dedicated to each new top box.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved apparatuses and systems for providing interchangeable major components of a gaming machine, and in particular for such apparatuses and systems to involve the ability to replace, change out and/or reuse a top box, main cabinet or other major component of a gaming machine without requiring an overly costly or time consuming process.